Advances in technology provide increasing capabilities for electronic file duplication and transport making the sharing over a network of electronic documents increasingly easy. The ability to provide nearly instant access to information to millions of users has revolutionized the way many businesses are run. However, it is well known to those who practice in the art that electronic files are easily corrupted, that even secure systems connected to network can be attacked and breached with the subsequent corruption of files. As such, in the current environment, users who receive files from many network sources are unable to verify the authenticity of the files received.
Many applications in a wide range of fields require the ability to provide trusted access to networks. For example, schools or other institutions may need to provide students access to the Internet without fear of exposing the students to inappropriate material. In the financial and insurance industries many documents are forwarded electronically without any guarantee as to the authenticity of the contents thereof.
Known in the art are filtering techniques which attempt to programmatically identify objectionable or non-authentic material both in print and picture formats. Some create lists to objectionable sites to which access is denied. These methods are often prone to error and circumvention as the lists which allow or block access are constantly required to be updated and are vulnerable to low level network traffic which could allow objectionable or other unauthorized material into the system being filtered. Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus and method for providing trusted access to networks wherein the contents of electronic documents received over a network can be authenticated.